Thief doing reels wearing stolen gold jewellery arrested

Bengaluru: This arrested culprit has made burglary his full time job, Mumbai and Bangalore are the major locations of his work. He is accused in more than 35 cases. This is the background of Salim Rafique Sheikh alias Bombay Salim (46) who has been arrested by the Amruthahalli police, living a luxurious life by selling stolen jewellery, loves doing Instagram reels, beloved husband of three wives.

On the backdrop of a series of house theft cases in the police station, the police have arrested Salim Rafique, Yasin Mukbul Khan (42) from Mumbai. Since the arrest of the accused, the cases of 10 houses including Tumkur and Belgaum have come to light. Police have confiscated one kg of gold jewellery, 6.5 kg of silver jewellery, three bikes and other items worth Rs 67 lakh.

When the investigation team interrogated the main accused Salim and dug into his history of theft, many exciting facts were revealed. Salim, who started stealing houses in the Mumbai for several years, moved to Bangalore in 2018. He had broken into many houses in different parts of the city and looted gold ornaments.

In 2021, Salim and his team were arrested by Basavanagudi police station. At this time, 35 cases which happened in many stations of the city including Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Girinagar, CK Achukattu were revealed. Salim, who was jailed many times and released on bail, continued his old ways again. Dozens of cases against Salim are pending in court. However, after getting bail, he went into hiding without attending the court proceedings. Thus, the court had issued an arrest warrant against Salim, a senior police officer said.

Salim, who was arriving in the city by bus, marked some specific areas and identified locked houses. Later, along with his accomplice, he lay in wait near that house until late at night. At night, they used to break the lock of the house or cut the window bars to break in and steal jewelry and cash and escape.

Salim, who reached Mumbai after three or four house robberies, pawned the stolen jewellery and got paid there. Salim, who has three wives, has made separate residences for all three. Until the money runs out, he was living a luxurious life, including hotels, pubs and other vices. The officer said that soon after the money was spent, he returned to Bangalore and continued his act.

Accused Salim has a social networking site Instagram account and used to make video reels wearing stolen gold jewellery. He was pretending to be a rich man. The officer said that these videos also got a lot of likes and share.